How to Filter by Color in Excel

Organize spreadsheet data by color with just a few simple clicks

Written by Darlene Antonelli, MA

Last Updated: December 9, 2024

This wikiHow will show you how to filter by color in Excel on your Mac or Windows computer. To be able to do this, you should have colored cells that you can filter; if you haven't colored any cells, you can apply conditional formatting.

How do you filter by color in Excel?

Select the entire column you want to filter, then click the Data tab at the top of the screen. Click Filter, then the drop-down arrow next to the column you selected. Choose “By color” or “Filter by color” (depending on your version of Excel), then choose “Cell color” or “Font color” to filter.

Steps

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You can either open your spreadsheet within Excel by navigating to File > Open or by right-clicking the file in your file manager and selecting Open with > Excel.
To select the entire column, click the header cell (which is usually a letter).

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You'll see this tab in the editing ribbon above the spreadsheet editing space.
This is next to an icon of a filter.
A window will drop-down.
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Click the drop-down menu next to "By color" under the "Filter" header. You'll want to use the color field under "Filter" since the other field is only for setting how to sort the appearance on the spreadsheet.
- You might see "Filter by color" instead.
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Select either Cell color or Font color. Another menu will open to the right with color choices.
- After you make a selection, only the color you chose will appear on the spreadsheet.^{[1]
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